Eclipse backs all-EV market with $31 million funding round
If you want to buy or sell a used EV right now, what do you do first? A startup called Ever wants to be the answer to that question. The company bills itself as the first “AI-native, full-stack auto retail business” for electric vehicles, and already has thousands of customers buying and selling EVs on […]
xAI publicly announces its interplanetary ambitions
On Wednesday, xAI took the unusual step of publishing the entire 45-minute all-hands meeting video on X, making it publicly accessible. Details of Tuesday night’s meeting were previously reported by the New York Times, and may have influenced xAI’s decision to post the video online. The entire video reveals important new details about Musk’s AI […]
AI inference startup Modal Labs is in procurement talks at a valuation of $2.5 billion, sources say
Modal Labs, a startup specializing in AI inference infrastructure, is in talks with VCs about a new round valued at about $2.5 billion, according to four people familiar with the deal. If the deal closes on these terms, the latest funding round would be more than double the $1.1 billion valuation of the $87 million […]
Elon Musk suggests successive xAI withdrawals were a push, not a pull
Elon Musk is dealing with a wave of departures from xAI, including two more co-founders leaving the company this week, bringing the total to six out of the original 12. At Tuesday night’s all-hands meeting, Musk suggested the exit was about fit, not performance. “Now that we’ve reached a certain size, we’re going to organize […]
Microsoft announced that hackers are exploiting a critical zero-day bug to target Windows and Office users.
Microsoft has released fixes for security vulnerabilities in Windows and Office that the company says are actively being exploited by hackers to break into people’s computers. This exploit is a one-click attack, meaning a hacker can plant malware or gain access to a victim’s computer with minimal user interaction. At least two flaws could be […]
How to join a16z’s highly competitive Speedrun startup accelerator program
Without a doubt, one of the hottest new startup accelerators in the tech industry right now is Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun program. The accelerator, scheduled to launch in 2023, has an acceptance rate of less than 1%. The program said in a blog post in January that more than 19,000 startups had participated, but less than […]
Why are the economics of orbital AI so cruel?
In a sense, this was inevitable. Elon Musk and his coterie have been talking about AI in space for years, primarily in the context of Iain Banks’ sci-fi series about a far-future universe where sentient spaceships roam and control the galaxy. Now, Musk sees an opportunity to realize a version of this vision. His company, […]
How AI will change math for startups, according to Microsoft VP
Microsoft’s Amanda Silver has been dedicated to helping developers for 24 years. And for the past few years, that has meant building tools for AI. After a long stint at GitHub Copilot, Silver is now corporate vice president of Microsoft’s CoreAI division, where he works on tools for deploying apps and agent systems within enterprises. […]
UpScrolled social network struggles to moderate hate speech after rapid growth
UpScrolled, the social network that came under fire after TikTok changed hands in the US, is facing serious moderation issues. After surpassing 2.5 million users in January, users reported that the app did not take action against the creation of usernames or hashtags containing racial slurs, and did not adequately moderate harmful content. After receiving […]
Former Founders Fund VC Sam Blond launches AI sales startup that will transform Salesforce
When Sam Blond left his job as a VC at Founders Fund a year ago, just 18 months after joining the company, he told the world that being a VC wasn’t for him and he was “going back to management.” On Wednesday, he officially brought his new startup, Monaco, out of stealth. The company was […]